Handle with care
by N3L
Summary: People drift in and out your life all the time. Sometimes, it all happens with you being all too aware of it. Sometimes, people don't simply drift away passively. Sometimes they walk away knowingly. In this instance, Ino just wants to know: is it worth it? One shot. Quick drabble. Edited 03/11


**Disclaimer: Characters are property of Masashi Kishimoto. Written work below belongs purely to me.**

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**Handle With Care**

_**By: N3L**_

_People drift in and out your life all the time. You do the same. Sometimes your paths will intertwine again, sometimes not. It all depends. But in this instance, Ino just wants to know, is it worth it?_

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"Was it worth it?" She asked one day.

It was a simple Tuesday. The sun was bright, the birds were singing, and all was bathed in relative peaceful normalcy in Konoha. Everyone at this point was eager to keep this peace after the ravages of war years ago.

The Uchiha dilemma/tragedy had come to a halt, as the last survivor was coerced and compromised within the white walls of the Konoha Medical Center. He is bedridden from years of wandering the world, inflicting damage and self-destruction wherever he happened to be. And now the original Team 7 is once again within the walls of the Leaf all _together, _whether they liked it or not.

Ino wonders about drifing in and out of people's lives. And the consequences.

She opened the glaring white door to a skeletal room. And in this skeletal room sat Sasuke and Sakura, with the bare bones of what is left of their relationship. Sakura halted her soft bubbly flow of chatter, and Sasuke's faintly irritated expression never left his face. Ino inwardly sighed, because some people never change. She smiled wryly at this twisted notion that perhaps in this sense, they were perfect for each other.

Clad in a simple dark purple tank and a pair of standard black uniform pants, Ino stepped in lightly with her hands concealed within her pockets. There was a humorless smile on her lips. She sat down on the mattress wherein lay the bedridden Uchiha, and faced Sakura. The famed medic nin frowned, irritated, "What're you trying to pull, Ino-pig? Get away from Sasuke-kun."

She smiled that odd little smile.

"I didn't come here to see Sasuke," why would she? "I came here to see you, Sakura." It's so plain and simple.

The bewildered expression on Sakura's face was nearly comical. Ino's head hangs just the slightest, and it was only then that Sasuke noted that her smile was about to fall off any moment. It wasn't a happy smile. Not the big bright kind that Sasuke remembered the loud top graduate student to have. She was the only student to have beaten his overall score. Not that it mattered now. She couldn't possibly even be worth his time on the battlefield _now._ Sasuke briefly eyed the newcomer. He didn't know what kind of smile that was exactly. Then again, Sasuke was never too good at reading people's faces, much less understanding their emotions. He was familiar with it though. That kind of smile. He'd seen it in many people, and he never liked it. Not that he liked many things to begin with. Her smile was a smile that involved the simple stretching of the muscles in her face. It was the ends of her lips pulled back and nothing more. Just muscle memory. The same as how he could throw a shuriken without thought, the muscles in his hand and arm had it memorized. He'd gathered that it could mean many different things to different people, but he was quite sure that it was never a good.

It was only muscle memory_. He didn't like it one bit. The point of even smiling like that eluded him. Why even bother smiling? _It's such an unnecessary action.

Pointless.

He eyed the stranger and attempted to connect her to his memories of Yamanaka Ino. It didn't fit in his what little memories he had of her. Wasn't she this utterly boisterous and obnoxious child? Wasn't she...sort of like Naruto? Endlessly loud and annoying? Now it was rather quiet. And he really didn't like that smile. He also surmised that he wasn't used to being ignored. He's _the _Uchiha Sasuke. And who was this tepid stranger barely with that horrible smile?

Ino lifted her head, and suddenly Sakura was in full view of a blazing blue.

"Was it worth it?" The odd humorless smile still on her lips. It morphed slightly. And Sasuke's skin crawled just the slightest as he figured out that smile. It was a knowing smile. Not secretive. Just _knowing. _The few times he'd ever been mocked, it was with a smile just like that.

Itachi had that sort of smile often.

He _**hated** that kind of smile. _

Sakura blinked, confused. "What?"

"Tell me that it was worth it. For all those years ago it was worth it and I'll forgive you."

The unwavering blue held it's steady gaze on Sakura, and irritation bloomed on the recipient's face.

"_Forgive me? _What have **_I _**done_?" _A subtle hint of a vein rose on her large forehead. "Ino-pig, I don't what you're talking about. There must be some mistake," Sakura's hand flitted in the air like she was batting away some insect.

Ino continued and turned to face Sasuke, "Tell me that it was all worth it for him." No longer ignored; that steady blue, blue gaze lingered indifferently on Sasuke's face. There was something just a little odd about her eyes. About that disturbing shade of blue. So unlike Naruto's. If it were years and years ago, he might have flinched. The blonde continued, talking of something he couldn't comprehend.

"Because I don't think it was. I never did." Ino's expression never changed once, unlike Sakura's morphing expressions, that odd little smile tattooed on her lips.

A little trickle of relief he refused to acknowledge flowed into the Uchiha as Ino turned her gaze toward Sakura again, "Are you happy he's back?"

Confusion turned to indignity. "Of course, I am!"

That odd little smile stretched a millimeter, a fluttering breath of air. She looked at him again. Like an after thought. Since when was he _ever _an after thought?

Sasuke hated it when he couldn't tell what people were thinking when they looked at him. He hated even more when he actually cared to wonder what they were thinking. This was one of those times. He couldn't bring himself to blink.

Ino looked between the two and in one fluid motion; stood up and drew out her right hand, holding some unknown object to his knowledge.

Now it would be quite an understatement to say that Sasuke had seen some very odd things. He had seen things no one should ever stand witness to; horrors that should never be spoken of, and atrocities of humanity. But you grew desensitized to all that eventually, no matter how gruesome or horrid. From utter disgust to fearful apprehension...it was melted away to a dull apathy. But he had never been immersed in this quiet tense confusion in the next few minutes than he had in his entire life. Just pure and quiet confusion.

The blonde woman leaned over and placed the object on the table.

A red frayed ribbon?

The odd little smile stretched further. A faint noise of amusement came.

"That's good," she leaned back and took the two of them in, "Then all is well. Congratulations Sakura, you've won."

The odd little smile breezed out the door along with it's owner, and neither Sasuke nor Sakura ever saw it again. The red ribbon however, he saw again one more time, just by chance. Such trivial matters were usually of no importance to him, but it was only human reflex that caused him to notice it. The hospital was decorated with many degrees of calm and neutral colors. That little splash of brilliant red caught his eye naturally. Blood never even retained that vivid hue for long.

It lay peeking in a clear bag, rotting under a pile of medical waste labeled, "Handle with care."

He slowly passed it by and he returned back to his wretched white room. It was of no importance to him, despite how it eluded his comprehension.

Things were thrown away all the time.

**Fin.**


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